Electronics and Programming Guides

September 01, 2022 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: About 1 minute

Discover helpful and inciteful tips that you can use in your electronics and programming projects. We are focused on home-brew electronics, specifically for home automation. We like to use MQTT, Home Assistant, Node-RED, and Zigbee along with Node MCU and Arduino. With this combination of electronics and programming, you can automate anything.

We share some information about electronics fundamentals as well as knowledge about more advanced topics in electronics. It is very helpful to learn fundamentals such as Ohm's Law and resister networks when you are building home automation circuits.

Here you can find guides and articles with creative ideas, tips, and advice about programming, electronics, and home automation.

When you mix programming and electronics together you get fun.

EFUNDIES.com currently provides articles and guides related to electronics and programming. When our site update is complete, we plan to offer source code collaboration. We will also be adding guides and articles about home automation, so check in often to see our new projects.

More from Efundies

Image Processing in C#: A Comprehensive Guide

C# is a great language to do image processing in. It's fast and easy to handle complex image manipulations with it.

Begining Circuit Analysis and Ohms Law

For simple circuits this is pretty easy. For complex circuits it can be amazingly hard, even for pros.

Here’s a closeup of how we wired our IRF520 modules. You can see that the power to the modules is in parallel.

MIDI Controlled Solenoids with Arduino and Ableton Live - Part 1

At the end of the series you will have a setup that is capable doing this. This is a pretty complex topic so it is split into 3 parts to make it easier to follow.

How to Create a WinAVR C Skeleton File

If you are New To C then you can consider this a crash course introduction to the language.

Command line interface

Command Line Interface

Command line interface (CLI) is a text-based interface that is used to operate computer systems.

Some common components include capacitors and resistors, as well as transistors, LED displays, and chips.

Electronics Fundamentals

Learn all about resistors, capacitors, and transistors in our collection of Electronics Fundamentals articles.

The newest addition to the Windows command prompt experience, Windows Terminal, is the best choice for most people.

Windows Command Prompt vs PowerShell

When it comes to comparing Windows Command Prompt and PowerShell, there are a few key differences.

Getting Started with AVR

The beauty of AVR is that once you know how to deal with one of them, you know how to deal with all of them.

How to Lighten an Image in C#

In order to lighten an image in C# you need to look at each pixel one at a time and increase it's red, green, and blue values.

How to compile ncmpcpp on CentOs 8

If you are new to compiling applications on Linux then this can be a bit daunting the first time you do it.

Mosquitto is one of the most popular open source MQTT brokers.

How To Set Up An MQTT Broker with Mosquitto

There are a few options to get your MQTT broker up and running, including Dockers and bare-metal installations. Let's talk about some of the most common ways to get your MQTT broker ready to go.

You can get started programming with a simple setup. All it takes is a laptop and a cup of coffee.

Programming: Tips and Tricks

A collection of tips, tricks, and snippets of code for a variety of programming languages, including C#, AVR, Arduino, and Perl.

Resistors in Series

When you wire resistors in series, you can simply add their values together to get the new equivalent reistance.

Resistors in Parallel

Learn how to calculate the equivalent resistance of two resistors when they are wired in parallel.

How to Adjust the Contrast of an Image in C#

Adjusting the contrast of an image in C# is an easy operation because it can be done on a single pixel at a time.

An MQTT broker helps glue your home automation systems together.

How To Choose an MQTT Broker: Mosquitto vs HiveMQ vs Home Assistant

When it comes time to choose an MQTT broker, you have a few choices. Let's check out the pros and cons of Mosquitto, HiveMQ, and Home Assistant's built-in MQTT broker.

How to Select the Right Resistor for Your Circuit: A Fundamentals Guide

The most important component to understand in electronics is the resistor.

How to Set Up STK500 Jumper Settings for AVR Programming

Make sure that you have the STK500 user guide on hand, you are going to need it.

NodeMCU is one of our go-to chips for tackling various home automation projects.

NodeMCU

We use NodeMCU boards for almost every aspect of home automation. These inexpensive little power-houses can solve many home automation problems.

Electronics topics include chips, capacitors, resistors, transistors, and building circuit boards.

Electronics

Our collection of electronics articles helps you get started in home automation and circuit building.

Learning Linux will help you with many different home automation projects.

Linux

When you get interested in home automation, you are eventually going to want to learn Linux.

433 Mhz hardware can extend your home automation.

433 Mhz Radio Transmitters

433 Mhz radio transmitters are available everywhere and they are usually very inexpensive. With a little bit of programming we can make them do anything we want.

AVR microcontroler with printf function

AVR and printf

You should leave your STK500 setup exactly the same as it was setup for a previous guide.

This modern LED lightbulb consumes 1/10th the energy of old-school incandescent bulbs.

Electricity

Follow our electricity guides to learn how to read your power meter, save energy, and measure the power usage of various devices in your home.

How To Quickly Create a OneNote Page from the Command Line

OneNote is a great tool for organizing your thoughts and keeping track of your work, and you can create a OneNote page directly from the command line.

What is a binary program file

What is a Binary Program File

We cover what binary program files are and where you should put them on your computer

You can see that the MIDI data generated in Ableton Live flows into the USB port of an Arduino, where it is used to control solenoids.

MIDI Controlled Solenoids with Arduino and Ableton Live - Part 3

This is the 3rd and final part in a 3 part series about how to control solenoids using Ableton Live and an Arduino.

What are Transistors and How do They Work?

With the transistor we introduce the first 3 legged device. Transistors come in many varieties, shapes and sizes.

Node-RED makes writing home automations fast and easy.

Node-RED

Node-RED is the easiest way to manage your home automation rules. It couples well with Home Assistant and is much easier to program.

C# Color Object

Once you have a Color object you can easily get the RGB and HSB values out of it.

Home automation can be fun with Node-RED and Home Assistant

Node-RED Makes Automation With Home Assistant Fun

Node-RED adds a lot of fun to Home Assistant.

There are many different Arduinos to choose from, such as this Uno variety.

Arduino

Many home automation projects can be solved by simply "throwing an Arduino at it". Our Arduino articles show you how.

How to Replace A Color in an Image with C#

Sometimes you need to replace one color in an image with another color. C# makes it easy.

C# Switch

A switch statement in C# is a great way to switch between options.

How to Darken an Image in C#

In order to darken an image in C# you need to look at each pixel one at a time and decrease it's red, green, and blue values.

Perl may be an old language, but it is still the glue that holds many projects together.

Perl

Perl is one of the most common glue languages available on Linux. It is useful in home automation for quick scripts as well as complex processes.

How to Understand Electronics Signals and Flow for Beginners

Signals and Systems is a common term that is used to refer to system design.

RSR solderless breadboard

How to Prototype Electronics Projects

When experimenting with electronics, it is usually best to practice in what is called a Solderless Breadboard.

Save png

How to Save a PNG File in C#

This guide will walk you through the steps required to save an Image or Bitmap to disc in the PNG format and allow you to specify the compression quality.

Scale an Image in C# Preserving Aspect Ratio

If you need to change the size of an Image without changing the ratio of X to Y then this article tells you how.